To Be A Girl

By Erin Deborah Waks

To be a girl is to wear feminine tops and high-rise jeans with high-heeled boots, even if they make your feet hurt.

To watch old romcoms, starring Renee Zellwegger, Keira Knightly and Rachel McAdams, on repeat until you can quote the most romantic lines.

To love a book for its aesthetic value, just as much as the poetry of its prose.

To feel better walking down the street with a latte in hand, even if it costs too much.

To walk down that street with music blaring through headphones, creating the soundtrack to your mood, your life.

To write in a beautiful notebook, and think as you watch the world go by outside a coffee shop window.

To love hosting dinner parties, laying the table with the care you’d take of someone you love.

To complain about Pilates, while simultaneously feeling stronger than you’ve ever felt.

To feel naked leaving the house without a pair of earrings on, regardless of where you’re going.

To cook dinner while drinking a glass of wine, Norah Jones or Stevie Knicks blaring through speakers.

To wear matching lingerie, and for no-one else to know.

To believe it’s mandatory to pick up a treat after a yoga class, in the form of cookies or sugary French pastries.

To wear a dress. To know you look good in that dress.

To listen to Lana Del Rey on vinyl in your underwear, and feel happy and sad at the same time. 

To smile at other girls on the tube, just to let them know you’re a girl, you understand, too. 

To have brunch with the girls, and eat overpriced avocado on toast while surrounded by friends who make you feel like you don’t have to do life alone.

To love being wrapped up in the arms of the man you love, feeling safe and small and warm.

Well, that’s just to be this girl.